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I really imagine that I’m going to piss people off with this post but here it goes. I would like to announce that just because your government has deemed something a holiday doesn’t really mean anything more than you’ll get no mail and the banks will be closed. Every thing else is what you make of it.

I hate this time of year. National Crass Consumerism season is upon us and I feel caught in the cross-fire between wars on xmas and thanksgiving. We celebrate xmas on December 25th because the Nicene Council co-opted mithras’ birthday and story as the story of Jesus. We celebrate thanksgiving on that fourth Thursday in November because of a decree Lincoln made during the Civil War. Actually, most of modern xmas these days is a twist of many pagan traditions. The first real thanksgiving holiday in the US had absolutely nothing to do with turkeys or pilgrims. As far as we can tell, the pilgrim version of a thanksgiving type celebration in the 1600s came at the end of June. Most biblical scholars think a historical Jesus was likely born around October. So, my question is this … why is every one getting their panties in a twist on what particular day they have off of work, what they do with that day, and what they force the rest of us to do?

Emergency workers, public safety workers, casino workers, and health care workers are basically on a 365 day, 24 hour, 7 day a week schedule. Why fret that retailers want to do the same thing? You work there, you get a pile of days off and you get to use them. You don’t always get the days you want, but the usual distribution of days off is done with a degree of judiciousness. Each religious group goes for their own set of holidays and covers the others. I’ve been on one of those schedules and I have no problem working on any traditional holiday because it’s just another freaking day to me. Better yet, it’s a really quiet, mostly work free day in your work environment because the rest of the lemmings have spent a lot of money, time and effort trying to life up to the consumerist’s dream of “family” tradition and holiday. Aren’t there some freaking football teams working on Thanksgiving and the day after too? Plus, all those folks that work in support of an arena? Why not block the showing of all games and parades which are also a lot of freaking work?

To these people, I say, make up your own damn holiday and celebrate as much as you want and whenever you want and get your family together to do things. Also, quit spending money that makes the business community go apeshit at specific points in the year. Diwali just passed us by. Do you see any Hindus parading around and complaining about not getting a national day off of life and stores filled with Diwali food and trinkets? I can imagine many celebrated it as a day off work, did their own things with their families with their own traditions and stuff. That should be the nature of family get togethers and holidays. Why does every US holiday have to be a mass spectacle with forced participation and budget that would make an Emperor blush?

The problem is that workers aren’t treated with respect and they aren’t given enough vacation and time off. It doesn’t freaking matter if it’s the day after xmas or thanksgiving or independence day or talk like a pirate day. You honestly don’t see these kinds of crap conversations going on in media in other places in the world. The civilized ones don’t treat their workers like that and the uncivilized ones have bigger problems to deal with. The US seems to turn their holidays into something sacred that’s blown way out of proportion and requires gigantic budgets and effort. US holidays are placebos for a lifestyle that sucks. The emphasis should be on correcting the lifestyles that sucks not the damned contrived holidays.

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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.

You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.